Smokin’ Joe Frazier deathly ill

Just read the news about a man who I saw in the FOTC. Frazier is my ideal of a true warrior,and I pray for his recovery...

 

:good


good luck joe.

 

Hope he gets better

 

Totally gutting to here this aawww shucks come on Joe hang in there - here-here to the above as well - get that left hook going Joe!!

 

Yea, just caught the sad news on ESPN....Terrible news.

 

Keep fighting Joe.

 

very sad news

 

Come out smokin`, Joe!

 

not good, hope he beats it

 

Terrible news.

Hang in there, champ, my thoughts are with you.

 

Joe Frazier is perhaps the first fighter I truly respected. In the '70s, my family would go to Shakey's Pizza on Sundays in Chicago and they'd be playing silent film of the great fights. I was a very young kid and it mesmerized me to see Frazier keep getting up time and again, pound his gloves together and go at big George Foreman again. I knew I was in the presence of greatness when I saw him flooring Ali in what I immediately and correctly identified as a pure warrior's crowning moment.

My respect and admiration for Smokin' Joe have only increased over the years. I have recently been watching him on film; he was a beast, a skilled fighter with real knockout power and a heart that knew no quit, truly worthy of being mentioned in the company of the greatest heavyweights of all time: Louis, Marciano, Dempsey, Frazier.

I hope he has made peace with the fact that he will never be the figure Ali is. This fame is justified; after all, Ali dethroned George Foreman and prevailed in Manila and to the winner go the spoils.

But Frazier and Ali met as young men, as close to their primes as this imperfect world will allow two all-time greats to clash in the realm of reality. What a fight. What a night. What a moment, etched in history forevermore, as in the 15th and final round, Smokin' Joe Frazier still had enough in the tank to smash that damn butterfly, raise his arms in victory and still say: "Ain't nobody doin' no crawlin' tonight." He was great.

Joe Frazier is right at Ali's heels; as usual, the Lip said it best in the immediate aftermath of their thrilling rubber match: "He is the greatest fighter of all times next to me."

God bless you, my brother.

 

If there has ever been any fighter anywhere who could battle back from something like this, it's Smoke. (Keep in mind that Mike Dokes is also battling liver cancer, and has managed to hang in there so far.) Joe, you know you have millions, upon millions, upon millions, world wide rooting for you.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFrkeDdZmyA[/ame]

 

Terrible news. I had no idea he was ill. He's Joe Frazier; he knows no other way than to fight.

Good luck, champ.....

 

****. good luck